Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Brass prep a waste of time?

It's not going to make any difference at 600, mostly due to wind--but I can assure you there's a significant difference in group size at 100 with my 6mm PPC benchrest rifle at 100 yards between .001" and .002" of runout. Which is why I perform the full brass-prep routine on my 6mm PPC cases.

A lot of it depends on the purpose of the rifle, whether shooting thousands of bison to feed railroad workers or shooting the tiniest 5-shot groups at 100 yards.

Yep. Horses for courses.

Pretty sure I remember you carrying on in a thread about filing away at flash holes with your torch tip cleaners. 🤔

For my most frequently used units, I take 400 rds of once fired brass, do an anal brass prep, then weigh and sort down to the most uniform 100. Not a waste of time as group size is typically halved compared to virgin cartridges.

BSA did anybody ever tell you YOUR NOTHING BUT KEY BOARD DICK!!!!

HE JUST SHOWS WHOS CLUELESS

Interesting what people are saying about Starline brass, early on in their production I heard a lot more criticism of it then good.

Might give Starline another look.

Same for me.

However, i began a test with my Sako 85 308 when i purchased it new. I also purchased 1000 Lapua cases new. The test, I load the cases directly from the box with zero preparation. I have yet to shoot a group larger than 1/2 moa after +/- 150 rounds fired. Most have been one ragged hole.

Yep, it wasn't that good early on--but have used it in various rounds since then, and it's been very good, including such "accuracy" cartridges as the 6.5 Grendel....

Might also mention that a lot of Norma brass is very good. In fact when I got my 6mm PPC bench rifle brass was kind of hard to find, since it was the middle of the Obama shortages.

Put an ad on the Campfire Classifieds, and one guy had a bunch of Lapua and Norma brass he was willing to sell. However, he warned me the Norma brass "was junk." I bought it all anyway, and found the Norma brass was more consistent than the Lapua. Am still using the Norma....

Oh, and also found during my years in the gun-writing business that many brass manufacturer have produced it for other firms, when somehow the other firm needs some but is too busy cranking cases out to fulfill their contracts. This not only includes American manufacturers, but Lapua and Norma....

I’m needing some new brass with a different head stamp so I can keep track of the same chambering in different rifles…...i got way too many 270’s…….

One thing I've found is that some brass needs a lot more preparation than others. I used to think RWS was overpriced, for example, but it comes nicely presented, prepared and sorted, ready to go straight from the box. Some other, less expensive brands have needed quite comprehensive preparation: trimming, chamfering, primer pocket uniforming, sizing, and sorting by weight. Factor those in and the time involved and it isn't such good value.

At least there's this though: if you don't lose it, and neck-anneal it regularly, and don't overload it to buggery, the brass you've spent that time preparing can last quite a number of cycles.

Yep!

Have enough RWS .308 brass to last for all the hunting Eileen and I are going to do, which is quite a bit....

I have heard folks whine about Norma/Weatherby brass on various forums. I haven’t had issues with multiple firings in two cartridges. You know some folks would complain if you hung ’em with a new rope…

So very true.

About that Hornady 9.3 x 62 brass I was complaining about: When purchased at Epps, a large importer of American reloading supplies, the manager informed me that that nicely packaged Hornady brass was actually made in Europe by S&B. At Canadian Customs a manifesto had to declare in what country of origin it was manufactured, despite the package stating ""Made In The USA". Also, I was told that the 286gr ammo in 9.3 x 62 that Remington was sending to Europe; that bullet was the Hornady 286gr SP-RP.

And so the world churns . . .

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

John, I've had good luck with some older Nosler brass for the 7-08 and 7mag, and current Norma brass for my 6.5 PRC. Am I correct that Norma made Nosler's brass for a while, maybe still do?

Bob, am not surprised about Remington using Hornady bullets.

Over 30 years ago the guy who'd been the writer-contact/public-relations person at Remington years sent me several kinds of "Core-Lokt" ammo. Some of the bullets looked very much like secant-ogive Hornady Interlock Spire Points (which Elmer Keith often called "pencil-pointed"). I pulled a couple and sectioned them, and wonder of wonders, they had Interlock rings inside the jackets.

It also turned out the Remington ammo folks had discontinued the heavy-jacket Core-Lokts, except the round-nose models--and hadn't told the PR guy....

If I recall correctly, Norma made at least some brass for Nosler. But around a decade ago Nosler bought a Washington-state brass manufacturer named Silver State Armory and moved the equipment to Oregon, so they could make their own brass. I don't know how much Nosler makes themselves now, but the ultimate goal was to produce all their brass.

There are other independent companies that make cases for various ammo and reloading companies.

some of my family and some friends worked at Federal Cartridge , believe me Federal made brass for many other companies ,i have some brass new and used from Federal that has different head stamped brand names on the brass made at Federal, they did shotgun ammo too for other companies. i sure mis the days of getting left over brass , once fired brass , and paper shotgun hulls , now days they have to throw all of it away. Pete53